Philippines in 2004

Quezon City (designated national government centre and the location of the lower house of the legislature and some ministries); many government offices are in Manila or other suburbs

Head of state and government:

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo

Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was sworn in June 30, 2004, as president for a full six-year term after she defeated Fernando Poe, Jr., by more than a million votes in the May 10 Philippine election. She had already served three years as president. Arroyo campaigned on her record and on promises to improve the economy and reduce corruption. Poe, a movie star, was a high-school dropout with no political experience. He campaigned with other celebrities without offering a political program or being willing to debate issues. With politics in the Philippines widely being seen as show business, Arroyo chose a popular television newsman as her vice presidential candidate. Arroyo’s record as president was widely criticized as inadequate, but Poe was considered by many as a front man for ousted former president Joseph Estrada and for supporters of another ousted president, the late Ferdinand Marcos. Church groups and regional leaders rallied to Arroyo during a violent campaign in which 115 people died in election-related bombings, assassinations, and brawls. Poe was defeated, but he argued that vote rigging and other illegal methods had been used by Arroyo. Not until a recount, a court rejection of Poe’s protests, and an all-night session of the nation’s Congress was Arroyo declared elected on June 24. Poe died of a stroke on December 13. (SeeObituaries.)

In her inaugural speech Arroyo promised to crack down on widespread tax evasion; later, in a state of the nation address, she asked Congress to pass eight new tax bills in order to cut a public debt of more than $60 billion. She warned that the Philippines faced a financial crisis because of the government’s spending 4–5% more than it brought in. Unemployment was estimated at 11%, and some eight million Filipinos had to go abroad to find jobs. Arroyo’s efforts to push new taxes through Congress were seen by political observers as a test of both her leadership and the viability of the political system. Congress had in recent years been more absorbed in personal politics than in passing legislation. Both Arroyo and Poe advocated a constitutional change from the Philippines’ American-style presidential system to one that included a prime minister who might better lead a legislature that operated with clear-cut party factions instead of shifting personal alliances.

Abu Sayyaf, a terrorist group that sought a separate Islamic state in the southern Philippines, exploded a bomb on a new ferry, the owners of which, officials said, refused to pay the terrorists protection money. The ferry sank in Manila Bay on February 26. Of some 900 persons aboard, 116 were killed or were missing. Officials said that the terrorists had trained with Jemaah Islamiyah, a Southeast Asian branch of al-Qaeda. Two terrorists were captured, including a man accused of having kidnapped three Americans in 2001 and beheaded one of them. In March police captured four Abu Sayyaf militants accused of planning to bomb shopping centres and trains around Manila. On April 8 in the far south, soldiers killed a top Abu Sayyaf commander. Abu Sayyaf militants and others escaped from a prison in the area two days later, despite army warnings of an escape plot, but some fugitives were soon killed or captured. Four storms raked the Philippines with heavy rain in late November and early December. They caused floods and mud slides along the country’s Pacific coast east of Manila. Civil defense officials in mid-December indicated that the storms had killed 1,062 people and that 552 others were missing.